Fireworks!

Boy was I dying to take photos of fireworks this year. I've tried loads of times and never succeeded. This year I was prepared.

By happy coincidence my friend Clare was having her birthday party on the night of the Wicksteed Park firework display and I was invited. By even happier coincidence she lives almost directly opposite the event. This meant I could set up my tripod in her garden rather than at the actual event where I risked getting in the way of the crowds. I was most grateful for this because it meant I could fumble and faff as much as I liked without getting all flustered and embarrassed.

So with my tripod set up and my piece of balck card...carefully cut to be just larger than my lens I was poised.

The first few shots were unmitigated disasters. I set the exposure time to 30 secs but even with my card covering the lens between bangs the images were hopelessly over exposed. I reduced the exposure time to ten seconds and started to get some reasonable images. By judicious experimentation I hit a rhythm...whoosh...pause...remove card...BANG...replace card...whoosh...pause...remove card...BANG...etc. I'm ridiculously pleased with the results.

These photos have not been enhanced in Photoshop at all. I will clone out the bottom in the bottom right when I get time.

Week 6

Lots about printing and of course this week our printer decides to catch a cold and die! So I've read the theory but not really got much further...still there's time once the CMA is out of the way.

The assignment, fortunately, was a printer-free zone.

Take five photos that form a set linked in some way, for example in technique (e.g. motion blur, macro, small depth of field), colour theme (e.g. reds, natural colours, cool colours), or subject (e.g. portraits, landscapes, still life). Upload the photos to OpenStudio. Can you spot the linking theme on other students’ sets?

I chose to practice my portraiture which has been a bit weak to date. By the time I'd taken hundreds of shots of my poor, long-suffering husband and son I was feeling much more confident. I even managed to snap one of my dad who is notoriously difficult to photograph.

Asleep in the Firelight

The only illumination was the open fire. I used the camera on manual but because of the low illumination I set it on a conveniently placed coffee table and used the self timer. I love the glowing effect.

Father and Son 2

Taken on a train. The chaps were having a cuddly moment so I fired off some shots. This was the only useable one but I'm happy with that...one good one is all you need.

Evening Dip

This was highly experinmental. The light in the swimming pool was terrible so I used 1600 ISO hence there is a lot of noise. However, it does have something. I really like the composition for one thing. The colour of the pool and the over all colour cast somehow give and aged 70s feel to the photo.

Dad

Never an easy subject my dad. He does have a lovely face though and I'm hoping to get a better portrait than this in the near future. I love his expression but the background is a little distracting.

Train Journey through the Rain

This is my personal favourite for two reasons. First, my son has a particular look when he's thinking or concentrating. he sort of puckers his bottom lip. I've tried before to capture that look but never managed it. This is the first time I've been successful. Second, I was deliberately aiming for a 'rule of thirds' shot to best showcase the contrast between the dark and the photo does exactly what I set out to do. I was a happy bunny when I saw the result.

Week 5

Ok this week I had loads of opportunities for practice as we were on an Autumn break in Dartmouth. No work, no housework, no school run, not even the distraction of FC as the internet connection was so dodgy; just ample opportunity for relaxing and practising my photography.

So practice I did. This week was all about colour and learning to use it as a tool in our photographs. The assignments read:

Go out with your camera and look for colour. Take photos close to subjects, so that the colours fill the frame – it doesn’t matter if the viewer cannot immediately tell what the subject is.

Consider the following guidelines:Look for images composed of vivid colours (highly saturated) as well as more muted colours.Look for complementary colours (those opposite each other on the colour wheel) and harmonious colour combinations.Consider images that consist of single colours and multiple colours.

Think about balance, unity, dynamism and focus of attention when composing and editing your images.

Once you have a selection of images use the cropping tool in Elements to remove areas of each image that don’t add to the impact of the colour. Then use any of the Elements tools, especially those that have been introduced in Session 5, to adjust, enhance or correct your images.

Upload six of your selected images to Open Studio for discussion among your group.

Seaside areas are generally quite good for colour...especially that lovely washed-out colour caused by being exposed to the elements. I found some lovely old dinghies; some flat-bottomed canoes, and plenty of buckets, spades and brightly coloured fishing nets. The results are below.

Stacked Dinghies

These faded and harmonious colours are all from one half of the colour wheel: from blue/green to magenta

Stacked Broad-based Canoes

Harmonious colours again, all from one half of the colour wheel: blue/green through to orange.

Red Dinghy

This was taken on a cloudy but bright day and the red dinghy stood out among all the white ones. I helped it along a bit by desaturating the background slightly in Photoshop.

Candy-coloured Fishing Net Poles

These were very pretty and made me think of the printers' primaries: cyan, magenta and yellow.

In week one I tried to photograph some of my son's brightly coloured marbles but they looked dull. So this week I made sure that we called in at The House of Marbles in Bovey Tracey. The factory shop and museum were quiet and as a result the staff were quite happy for me to set up my tripod and snap away...so I did. Marbles are such good subjects and I'm much happier with these shots.

Marble Blanks

We also visited a pottery. There were very few people wandering round so we decided to take part in one of the short pottery lessons advertised. All three of us had a go; even our four year old!

Manseur, the resident potter was a sweetheart and very patient and we each managed to produce a recognisable (sort of) small vase and a bowl, which we painted before they were fired. They've promised to post them to us when they're ready so if you know me and receive a wonky vase for Christmas you'll know why!

Manseur and his diddy apprentice

In the pottery cafe there were some stacked, coloured crates which I thought might make a good composition for this assignment. The cafe wasn't busy so I assembled my tripod and took a few shots. I was packing up the tripod when I had the distinct feeling that someone was standing behind me. I turned and there were three other diners all taking the same photo either with hand held cameras or camera phones. Guess they thought they might be missing out...the power of the tripod: people actually think you know what you're doing! Here's the result.





I had a similar experience when I was taking the chocolate box shot of the coloured dinghies for assignment 4. I set up my tripod quite low then crouched behind it to peek through the viewfinder. When I'd finished I realised that I had an elderly man with a camera crouched beside me. "You look like you know what you're doing," he said, "So I thought this was worth a shot." I didn't disillusion the poor fellow!


Of course there were loads of other general photo opportunities and I've posted some of the better ones below.

Gone Fishing

Sunrise through the Gate

Three Green Doors

I do like 'door shots' and this reminded me a little of one of the Flickr photos I chose during week 1

From The Level, at Dittisham

Another attempt at a story-telling shot

Exiting Higher Ferry

An attempt to capture motion using car head and tail lights.

Open Fire

Frothy Waves

Another motion shot

Fish Relief
(As seen)

Brixham Mosaic
(colours enhanced slightly by using the saturation tool in Photoshop)

Break!

Another attempt at capturing motion

Been Away and Week 4

Son gets two weeks at half term instead of one so I've been rather too busy to keep up on here. I've been working a few extra days too so just keeping up with the photography has been tough. However, last week we went away to Dartmouth for an Autumn break so I've had loads of opportunities to practice in a very picturesque setting.

Week 4

All about focussing and depth of field. Boy have I encountered problems with focussing. I could manage lighting, and composition but the photos were all blurry...almost all of them. I was taking twenty shots for every in focus one.

I had friends and their children round one day and took oodles of photos. Barely any of them were in focus but my friend kindly observed that they were 'beautifully lit and composed' (I knew I liked her for a reason!). It wasn't as though I was using long exposure times either...even at 1/250 and 1/400 I couldn't guarantee being in focus.

First I thought it was me. I had a colleague test my eyes just in case. I changed my contact lenses and still everything was blurry. I thought it might be the camera but my husband could manage clear shots on the same settings so the camera was fine. It was only when my Rheumatology appointment card landed on the doormat that the light dawned. My arthritic wrists and arms simply can't hold a camera still enough even under conditions other photographers have no trouble with.

I dragged out my tripod and tried again...BINGO...perfect focus. But my tripod is a huge and hefty beast and not easy for a gal with dodgy joints to lug around...much less manipulate, so the search was on for a lightweight 'handbag-sized' and foolproof model for everyday use.

I asked around in Dartmouth and a couple of people recommended the London Camera Exchange in Paignton. Two very helpful chaps sorted me out with a Manfrotto tripod which retails under the National Geographic name. It's lightweight but robust; clips and unclips easily; has a quick release button for the camera and while not being completely handbag sized is certainly no trouble to carry around...it does fit into a large tote bag. It is also completely Debbie-proof...so far. I'm thrilled with it and it has transformed my photography. I use it all the time.

Something else I'm thrilled with is a book by Bryan Peterson called 'Creative Exposure'. Mr. Peterson writes in an accessible and entertaining way about all aspects of exposure which is at the heart of good, creative photography. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I've learned loads and it supplements the course info very well. He explains how he took each shot: what settings etc and better still, explains why he made those choices. I couldn't put it down, nor could I wait to try his techniques. Buy it, you will not be disappointed.

I was particularly fascinated by his section on 'story-telling photos'. In essence, a story has a beginning, middle and end and a story-telling photo has a beginning (foreground), a middle (mid ground) and an end (far horizon). The essence of a good story-telling shot is that it should be in focus from about two feet in front of you to the far horizon. He uses a wide angle lens for his story-telling shots but I don't have this (though Santa has been informed that I've been a very good girl this year) so I've done my best to replicate the idea using my SIGMA 17-70mm set as wide as it will go.

The assignment reads:

Capture and share five images demonstrating your ability to control depth of field to achieve desired photographic effects.

The important point is that you should have a go at testing the theory and practise controlling depth of field as appropriate in your own images. You may wish to try some of these ideas:

• Close-up macro shots showing extremely narrow depths of field to pleasing effect.


• Portrait or still-life shots with very narrow depths of field (it is fashionable in portrait photography to have, say, just the eyes in focus and the hair out of focus. This requires a large aperture.
  
• Landscape shots where you have maximised depth of field.


• Sports action or wildlife shots with a narrow depth of field on the subject to give a pleasing composition.


• Replicating some of the images in the interactive camera.

You are not limited to these ideas – feel free to try anything that comes to mind.


So I opted to try some story telling shots...using maximum depth of field and some macro shots with a very narrow depth of field.

Having looked around on open studio I now have some more ideas for demonstrating narrow depth of field. I'll try them out over the next few days and post them here.

Breezy Brixham

This was my first attempt at a story telling shot. It's reasonably successful but the horizon could be lower (or higher) and the horizon could be better focussed, though it was windy and the boats were bobbing around like mad!

Across the Dart at Twilight

This is only partially successful though I do like it. The foreground dinghies really need to be closer to add to the depth of field effect. I do rather like the fact that the background boats are still while the foreground one is rocking like crazy due to the fact that about twenty seagulls are jostling for position!

Choc Box Boats

Possibly a cliche and it wouldn't look out of place on a box of Devon fudge but this is the most successful of my story telling shots because the three dinghies are very close and there is a good depth of field. The rich hues of the foreground boats against the more muted background also help to add to the the sense of perspective.

Stranded Sea Snail

He's a sweet chap and quite large (about 4 inches across). He was washed up on Blackpool Sands (bit of a misnomer as it's neither in Blackpool nor sandy!). I immediately pressganged him into a modelling career and exploited him mercilessly though to be fair he was very obliging. We did remove him to the safety of a rockpool afterwards.

Seed Head

I had this idea that I'd like to main part of the seedhead to be in focus but that I'd prefer the edges to be softer. Needless to say, once I had decided this I had pin sharp image after pin sharp image...why can't I do this when I need to! Eventually I managed to achieve what I'd set out to do and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Where does the time go?

It's been a week since I posted but my excuse is that I've been practising...lots. I've also invested in a good all round zoom lens. I was initially going to invest in the Canon model (£699 or thereabouts) but after consultation with my husband and a really helpful sales girl in the Peterborough branch of Jessops (thank you Anabelle) I've bought the Sigma 17-70 F2.8-4.5 Macro (£254). In the end I reasoned that the Canon may be heaps better but at my 'entry level' standard I'm not going to notice £450 worth of better. I'll have lots of fun with the Sigma until my knowledge increases to level that I actually notice its limitations, if it has any. I'll then be in a better position to know what to replace it with and in the mean time I won't have to sell a kidney.


Well one week on and I'm not improving at the pace I'd like but I'm pretty sure I am improving. I'm braver anyway.


Open Studio is a brilliant tool and there are a few people on there from whom I've taken great inspiration. Saffy, in particular has such a good eye for a shot and has really got into using Photoshop Elements. She's also brilliant at portraiture. Up until now my portraits have looked a bit staid...or gormless (not my hubby's fault...he's definitely not gormless, yet in my 'not very flattering' shots he looks like someone you'd cross the street to avoid!) So I've studied the EXIF data of all the portraits I admire and today I finally cracked it. I have a really nice shot of my son which I'm proud to call a portrait.


Portraits aside, this week has been all about capturing motion and taking photographs in tricky lighting conditions. It's been challenging to say the least but I've really tried hard and I'm actually getting somewhere. It does sometimes feel like two steps forward and one back though. I'm still getting the shutter speed wrong for the aperture and prevailing light conditions more often than I'm getting it right. One plus side to this is that I'm being forced to learn how to use Elements properly.


In fact my best shot this week arose from a mistake. I was trying to capture the motion of my four year old tearing along on his bike and I hopelessly over exposed the shot in the strong evening sunlight. I half heartedly tinkered with it in Elements and BINGO I suddenly had a very arty shot which I posted on Open Studio. It's received lots of great comments and I feel very happy with it. This photography lark is a bit like a drug. When you get it right you get a 'high' and you just have to go back for more.

Sparkly Spokey Dokeys

I took this using a tripod in our garden using ISO 1600, shutter speed 5 secs, aperture 5.0. I thought it was quite fun and the wheel lights made a great pattern.

SPLASH 1, 2 and 3

Actually there were about 36 takes . I was trying to catch the motion of the water when it was broken by a rock and it's very difficult to get an enthusiastic four year old to throw a rock exactly where you need it to be. For the first two I used ISO 200, F16 and shutter speed 1/500. These gave the best results but were still very dark so I lifted them a little by nudging the darkest bits of the brightness curves in Elements. I'm quite please with them now. For the last one I used ISO 200, F22 and shutter speed 1/200. This gave a better brightness result but a less spectacular splash.

Tunnel

This was an attempt to capture the bright area and detail of my son at the far end of the tunnel. I used ISO 400, F 16 and 1/500 shutter speed. It's not terribly successful. it was so dark I had to lift the bright area at the end of the tunnel in Elements but that introduced loads of noise. I do like the composition though. I think it has potential so I'll have a few more attempts at this shot in the future.

Balloon

Nothing to do with the assignment. It drifted over the park while we were there and was too good a photo opportunity to miss.

Barbed Wire with Weed

Just liked this one too.

Speedy Biker Boy 1 and 2

Number 1 was my most successful motion shot straight off the camera. I took about 30 in total so I tried loads of settings. This was at ISO 200, F22 and shutter speed 1/30. I was panning to keep my son in shot.

Number 2 was a mistake. it was hopelessly over exposed in the bright evening sunlight and I would have discarded it but I was playing with the curves tool in Elements to see what I could do and suddenly I has this lovely, bright, fun, arty shot.

It's a Long Way Home

This is my best portrait shot so far. I'm really pleased with it as it captures my son's usually serious expression perfectly.

Boy and Pumpkin

This was an experimental shot I took last week and forgot to post but it also covers this week's brief. My son arrived home from school with a pumpkin he'd designed and carved himself. Rather amazingly he still had all his fingers and he asked me to commemorate his prize possession. I used speed 1/4 sec, F-stop 4.5, ISO 800 and I'd like to thank Stephen Counsell and Dave Hudspeth for all their input. I was pretty clueless as to which settings to use and how to achieve the effect.

Week 3

This is about Exposure and it's all very interesting. After years of point, shoot and hope, the idea that I can actually control some of this stuff is quite intoxicating, especially to a control-freak like me.


Having read through Session 3 for the first time I now feel ready to make a start on the assignment which reads:


Capture and share five well exposed images from at least three of the following categories of varied and challenging lighting conditions:Creative motion blur in low or normal light conditions (e.g. walking, cycling, cars, sugar falling from a spoon, running water, car lights after dark). For this task you will need to steady your camera by either resting it on something or using a tripod. Avoid camera shake.Low light high speed (high ISO) still photography (e.g. moonlight, street lights). This can be hand-held if the shutter speed is fast enough or using a tripod or other camera support as appropriate. Avoid camera shake. High contrast photography (bright indoor lights or bright daylight or highly reflective subjects)


Unfortunately, unhooked from my precious automatic settings, I have 'control' only in the loosest sense of the word. Most of my initial shots are out of focus, over exposed, under exposed or just plain pants.


I therefore throw a tantrum worthy of my four-year-old and declare that the OU is a waste of money and I'm giving up...right now.


Fortunately, my other half has been through this early stage of an OU course before and, as with my four-year-old, he knows it's just a phase I'm going through and that I'll grow out of it given time, patience and a spell on the naughty step.


Eventually I calm down enough to have another go. I drag my long-suffering son to the park in search of 'motion'. His eyes light up at the sight of a Zip slide and I tell him that he can have as many goes as he wants, as long as he tries to point himself in my direction as he whizzes past.


He's up to the challenge and gamely makes fly-by after fly-by while I fiddle and faff and generally makes a dog's breakfast of every shot. Finally he zooms by and I manage to catch him...perfect.


'Hooray!' I yell.


'Brilliant,' he says, 'Please can I go on something else now mummy 'cause my bum is getting sore.'


Watching my husband playing in the sandpit (yes I know he's 39 but boys will be boys) I have an idea. I get him to trickle sand through his fingers while I try to catch the motion. Thirty shots later I have a couple of usable ones. Return home, marvelling at how patient my family are and vowing to bake a big chocolate cake for them...as soon as I've uploaded the shots...

Wheeeeeeeeee!

Sand Slipping through Fingers

Concentrating

Boy in Forest


Berries after a Shower